Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/85

 1830-40] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 67 way which seems to have fallen into oblivion later on. In 1834 November, Baily, as President, announced that he had during the recess (probably early in August) received a letter from Lord Melbourne, First Lord of the Treasury, requesting that the Council would wait on him in order to recommend a proper person to fill the post of His Majesty's Astronomer at the Edinburgh Observa- tory, the administration of which had recently been taken over by the Government. As there was not time to call a meeting, Baily and four others had waited on Melbourne, and recommended Henderson ; and this was approved by the Council.* Henderson received the appointment and started work at once ; his observa- tions made up to the end of 1835 were sent to the Council in 1836 to be reported on, as to whether they ought to be printed ; and the same was done the following year, till the Home Office had got to understand that this precaution was unnecessary. The printing of observations seems at that time never to have been undertaken by any public body without the Society being consulted. The East India Company in 1834 was quite willing to allow the Society to pay for the printing of Johnson's Catalogue of 606 southern stars observed by him at St. Helena. Baily, in stating that the catalogue was of a high order of excellence, pointed out that the Society was founded for the collection of the observations of private individuals, not of public institutions, and that their funds were limited. After which the Company agreed to print the catalogue, and it came out in 1835. I* 1 the same year the Council was asked to supervise the printing of Maclear's Cape Observations, which request was of course agreed to. The last occasion on which the aid of the Council was invoked by the Government during this decade was in 1839 March, when the Treasury forwarded a Memorial from a number of people, who had subscribed towards the erection of an observatory near Glasgow, praying for assistance to carry this object into effect. The Trea- sury requested the Society to give their opinion as to the propriety of complying with this request. The Council recommended this to be done, suggesting, however, that the observations be annually transmitted to the Treasury. This led to the erection of the Glasgow Observatory, which was taken over by the University in 1845. 4. The publications of the Society during this decade bear witness to the rapid rise of astronomy in this country after a long by his friend Jeffrey, then Lord Advocate, " who gave the office to a law-clerk." See Reminiscences of Thomas Carlyle, edited by J. A. Froude, London, 1881. As a youth, Henderson had been a writer's clerk.
 * Thomas Carlyle was a candidate for the post and thought himself ill-used